Kathy Krauth, a social studies teacher at the American School in Japan, admits she was never a huge fan of tanka, traditional Japanese poetry. "Tanka never really spoke to me. I dismissed it as early Japanese history with cherry blossoms." That all changed when Krauth sat in a classroom at the University of Colorado, Boulder, last July, inspired by the power of poetry penned by survivors of the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011.
Krauth and three colleagues, Kyoko Inahara (teacher of Japanese language), Karen Noll (literature) and Sarah Sutter (photography), together have organized a special tanka exhibition commemorating the second anniversary of 3/11. Supported by the nonprofit group Studio for Cultural Exchange, and drawing on the efforts of over 150 students and staff of ASIJ, the free exhibition runs through March 16 at the Ricketson Theater Lobby on the school campus, and reveals seven months of experiential learning and community collaboration.
Noll summarizes their thoughts as educators: "As a group we decided early on that we really wanted to move beyond the images of destruction, the boats on top of buildings that we've all seen. That's what the poems did for us. Then, it was our connections with each other, our really deep connections with the students and the community in Tohoku that became most important."
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